5/21/07

Another day in paradise.


It's a very odd thing living abroad. No matter how much time passes, things never seem to get less stressful. I'm not losing my mind or anything like that, but the underlying notion that everything is still so unpredictable when you are in a new place will always impart a certain stress and pressure both emotionally and physically. On the uplifting side of things, I was very productive at work today. I am almost done with my 4th crate (which i was supposed to have done by the 4th week and I haven't even been working 3 weeks yet). This last bag I am sorting though is loaded and should really take me the next couple of days to get through. i am getting really good at dental analysis though. So, it still appears as though I will get done early and will get to work half days at the lab, and the rest at the apartments (which will be really nice because of the air conditioning).

Some not so great stuff...I am coming down with a cough. Everyone around here has been sick and it really is only a matter of time before I fall victim to the germ spread. However it is hard to tell whether or not it is a sickness cough or if it is what my professor calls, "The Cairo Cough" a natural body reaction to the air pollution. Cairo is the most polluted city in Africa, and one of the most polluted cities in the world. The traffic is one factor....when at any given point in time the streets are packed with running vehicles (except during Fridays when people are at the mosques) one can only imagine how much exhaust is filling the air. Additionally there aren't any regulations in terms of garbage burning and what not. Air pollution to this degree is really something that should be expected overall in a city housing 25 million. So again, my cough could really just be my body telling me how unhappy it is that I am putting it through such unhappy times. There's not a whole lot I can really do about it though, just tough it out.

Other not so fun stuff. This morning I was drinking coffee and doing my crossword puzzle, ignoring the flies that buzz around me, trying to get access to any moist part of my skin or eyes. So nonchalantly, one of the grad students, Foy says, "What do you think this one is?" And I look...a pale belly dancing bug twisting itself about the table. I felt myself grow just as pale...I knew what it was...I just didn't want to be right. Someone voices, "Oh is it just some sort of worm?"....Disgusted still I can't look away, I find myself trying not to squirm and mock its very motions...Worm..yes a worm, please let it be a worm...Richard walks by and takes a look, and verifies what I knew the whole time, "Ohh yeah, that's a maggot." Glance around the table and there's another one....I look at my coffee cup and make sure it's clear, Richard mentioned something about them coming from the ceiling...I tossed out the coffee either way...he then went through the fruit bowl which sits as the centerpiece of the table and got rid of a molded out peach that had been sitting there. He said that that could have been why they were there. So add that to the list....I now don't eat the fruit here. Maggots...yes that one I am still trying to get over. I was glad I had decided not to eat anything for breakfast otherwise I probably would have felt very ill. But I'm still gonna go down to dinner, and just put it out of mind. I wonder if my dad accidently ever consumed maggots during his travels. Richard has many stories about maggot infested foods.

If only I were this guy:



tomorrow is my roommate's last night here. The professor she works with is giving a lecture on his dissertation work. She is going to be baysitting for his kids while he does that and I told her I would help. I suppose i could go to the lecture...but half of it is going to be in japanese with a translator...and I think I would rather just hang out with my roommate and watch some cinderella. Tuesday nights are usually movie nights around here, though I doubt that will keep up since everyone is pretty much leaving this week. Last week we watched layer cake, a movie I enjoyed a lot. the week before we watched Lucky number Slevin, which was also good, but I was able to figure out a lot of it well before the end.

I'm hoping to get some reading done tonight. I haven't been good about doing more work in the evening mainly because I hate being at my computer, and I hate reading this text book. Every day I toy with the idea of putting my computer away and abstaining from it completely but I know it helps for you to all read this, and most days it helps me too.

I leave you with a picture of this contemplative archaeologist:


Have a good day everyone. Will someone please tell me if my brother is alive? It occured to me the other day that I don't think I have seen him since january, and that's absurd. that cutiepie actually told Cedar point that he couldn't work until after May 12th because he had to see me before I left, but unfortunately I wound up leaving much earlier and he wasn't done with school yet. Man I love that kid...sometimes...no all the time.

Thank you to those that e-mail me and message me, it really helps to get personal responses and support while I am here.

5/20/07

Today was definitely better than yesterday in terms of how the time passed, and I think it has a lot to do with my quasi theory posed yesterday. You see today, I had to sort much more challenging material and therefore only managed to get through 3 bags, and 3 data sheets....in other words, I only wrote the date 3 times today. Also, Richard didn't come out this morning and so I was alone. Since I was alone, I listened to my cd player (YES I STILL LISTEN TO A CD PLAYER...i am not to be trusted with ipodishmp3ness). I usually don't listen to music because I don't want to seem rude...I know that part of my role here is a student and I don't feel that at moments when Richard decides to ask me questions or teach me something new that he should have to wait for me to take out my head phones, or turn down the volume...however...the time goes by sooo much faster with the music. he also didn't seem to mind that i was listening to it once he came back. I think tomorrow I will just ask him if he would prefer I not listen to music. i think he will want me to because, at some point I think he probably would rather have the excuse for us to not talk, or make side comments, especially once everyone else leaves and we are the only two left working at the lab...not that I think he doesn't enjoy teaching me or that I think he finds me annoying, but between working together all day, living together and having meals together...you probably just don't want to keep talking about what a hyomandibular looks like across various taxa of fish more than you have to.

The tables have turned with my roommate and I. My first 2 weeks here I always fell asleep while she stayed up on her computer and here i am typing away with the lamp on as she sleeps. Before she fell asleep she was making shadow puppets on the wall...a clear indication that she has been here for too long. She leaves on Wednesday. I am going to be pretty wonewee without her. It's going to be a whole lot of kelly thinking time. I could do a lot of data entry, unfortunately, I just really hate doing it on such a small screen. I have to have like 6 different excel spreadsheets opened at once and i am going back and forther between them all, it really wears on my patience, I lose interest quickly. Instead, I have just being doing a lot of crossword puzzles when I'm sick of sitting at my computer, which happens often and within a short time frame. Since I am getting through my area material ahead of schedule, Richard says that after I finish it, if I do so before the 14th, I can start coming to work for half days, and begin working on an area that doesn't pertain to my thesis, and then after lunch, i can stay at the villa and do my data entry/start writing. that sounds like a good plan to me and is more motivation to get through things quickly...although only doinig 3 bags today did not do much for that, but there are reasons why the bags were so challenging today...so, all I can do is work my hardest and the learn the most i can.

Like i said the roommate is trying to sleep now so I should go...sorry for slacking on pictures you guys...I will..uh..work on it?

Night!

5/19/07

Last night marked the 2nd in a row, post midnight slumber and tonight is not shaping up to be any different. It is already 11:00 p.m. and apparently in their Egyptian glory, this is a privy hour upon which to start doing jack hammer construction in the lot right next to the villa. Add that to the gang banging Kitties, and a night breeze which is unsuccessfully trying to compensate for the 105 degree day, and you have 3, of many contributing factors as to why sleep is not soon in sight.

I'm really starting to hit a plateau in terms of my eagerness to be here. It's not as though I'm not having a good time, or that things have become intolerable or anything...just at some point you want off the the ride...the ups, the downs, the loops...eventually you want yourself on familiar ground. While 17 days has certainly gone by fast, I still have 27 to go, and I feel the pace of things slowing down each second. I think a lot of it has to do with numbers. Let's start with hours of work. I have come to realize, that no matter how much you love your job, where you are or who you are with, 10 hours of doing the same thing, for 6 days a week will always get old, it will always lose its gleam. Particular to my 60 hours a week are more numbers...counting bones, weighing bones, measuring bones, aging bones...numbers numbers numbers. For every bag I sort, I write all of these numbers down on their own sheets which are headlined by..you guessed it, more numbers, feature numbers, bag numbers, the date the bones were bagged numbers...and in the right hand corner of this page I write the day's date. I probably write out about 20-30 data sheets every day....this means that in one day, I am reminded 20-30 times what day it is...for 10 hours I keep telling myself, today is May 19th, May 19th, May 19th.....how can I not transition from that to, 31-19= 12 +14= 26 days until I leave....or 19-2=17 days I have been here...and then my stomach starts to grumble, or my eyes start to get heavy and I look at my clock, 4 hours til lunch break, 7 hours until the day is over....and it's the same thing every day.

Well, seeing as though Saturdays are our days back after having Friday off, Saturday is the Egyptian Monday, and perhaps I just had a case of the Mondays and tomorrow will be better. But it cannot be so great unless I fall asleep...but it is still hot and there is still jack hammering outside.

I hope everyone else has a good weekend


Oh yeah and per my list, I have decided to remove coffee and subsitute it for slurpee for when I get home. The coffee really isnt that bad here, but not a slurpee for miles...they should have them though, i bet they would make a fortune!

5/18/07 Part Two: A Day's End

The night is winding down and it is around 8:00 p.m. here, 1:04 p.m. in Michigan. As mentioned in previous entries, today I went to the Cairo Museum. It actually wasn't too bad today, it was a little crowded in certain areas, but for the most part since I was just with one other person it was pretty easy to get through. They had a lot of tour groups going on though, all speaking different languages which was a little bit of a distraction, but everything was just so eye catching and unbelievable that the tourists and their guides easily faded into the background.

I have had my fair share of museum browsing experiences but I wouldn't even know where to start describing everything I saw today. The museum is just loaded with so much stuff, had most of these Egyptian tombs and areas not been looted from I don't know what they would do with it all...not that I encourage looting for the sake of cataloging convenience by any means. The museum is divided into Old, Middle, and New Kingdom stuff, as well as a huge exhibit on King Tut. Everything is so extravagant. I wasn't allowed to take pictures in the museum, and even if I could have, I assure you photo's would never do the collections justice. There were statues, stelae, chariots, beds, royal mummies, sickle blades, projectiles, dice, mummified animals, jewelry...the museum is 2 stories and is fairly large. It really needs to be renovated and more extensive measures to preserve the artifacts really need to be implemented, but I am grateful that I was able to see everything now. Some of my favorite things were the Mummy portraits from the Fayum, wooden models which depicted everyday work life in fishing, bread making, animal slaughtering, beer making, and granary movement from the Middle Kingdom. Also, the exhibit on Ahkenaten was something I particularly enjoyed. The exhibit on King Tut was "brilliant" haha for lack of a better American idiom...again extravagance to an unbelieveable degree. The exhibit on King Tut, for those that do not know, is of particular significance because it was buried under another Pharoah's tomb and therefore was not looted. In other words, it is one of the most complete collection for an Egyptian King that we have, though it is not indicative of him being more powerful than other dynastic rulers.

I was rather surprised at how much I really enjoyed looking at the jewlery throughout the museum. I myself have never been a girl in high demand for lavish things...I wear one necklace from time to time, though I think here I've worn it every day, and even then it is a simple one that I made. I also wear my class ring which I have had now for about 7 years, the only ring I have really ever worn, simple, with an aquamarine center (yay march!) . I own one pair of earrings which I'm pretty sure cost no more than 4 dollars, and actually broke in my back pack on my trip here, go figure. Tiffanys is a place to have breakfast, and diamonds are a fun suit to order up in Euchre...a slight window into my regard and appreciation for jewelry...but maybe if I were alive during dynastic Egypt my feelings would have been different. The craftsmanshift, the colors, its all gorgeous. I say we bring back the days of Cleopatra! In fact, if I ever get married or engaged, forget diamonds, I think lapis lazuli or turquois are beautiful. What can i say...I'm a cheap date. Also the faience beads and necklaces were gorgeous...but maybe I was just some sort of Egyptian queen in a past life....perhaps Hatshepsut, the woman Pharaoh herself! One can daydream..


After my trip in the museum, Richard and I went to eat at the Nile Hilton...it was definitely a nice break from the dirt-under-my-fingernails lunches that interrupt my work days here at the Villa. We didn't have Egyptian cuisine though, it was an Italian restaurant. I had risotto for the first time, and I loved it...you know I tell you what, rice is really starting to grow on me..and not because I work near our ethnobotany collection in the lab...but the actual taste for it has (even I have to admit that was terrible...I'm sure none of you even questioned for a second what I meant by "rice is starting to grow on me"). Anyways, moving on...I am always one to admit when I'm wrong- even if I really really despise doing so, and I have always maintained that rice is incredibly unnecessary, that is has zero flavor and just doesn't belong on my plate...but recently I have ventured out in to taste testing the different varieties of rice available here and some of them are, in fact, loaded with flavor. True to my health nut nature though, I am partial to the whole grain and borwn, and still say that white rice is pretty unnecessary- except the sweetend sticky kind surrounding sushi. I really miss sushi...not really something I trust to dine on here.

I am already thinking about of list of things I would like immediately available for me when I get back to the states (Marcia get your pen ready!) They include:

Tuna Salad
Peanut Butter M&Ms
A Big Cup of Coffee (their cups here are so little! Curse you American Portion Distortion!)
Tropical Twist Trident Gum
Kirk- though I know this will be harder to get since he is working hard at Cedar Point

Thanks in advance!

I'm sure there will be more things I will come to miss by the end of my stay, but those are it for now.

My phone started doing an "Inactivated Smart Chip" thing today, which I fixed by just turning it on and off today, but when it was in that mode I was unable to receive text messages...but once I fixed it I got ones I had missed all day so I don't think I missed any...so if it seems like I don't respond to your text message, chances are I didn't get them, I will always respond to them. Also, in the case of emergency, my cell phone does work here...but international rates are really expensive, so unless I really think it will be an emergency I probably wont pick up. E-mail is always good and still welcome (I still owe you a reply Michele! I didn't forget).

The rest of my day today was pretty laid back...I finally was able to just relax,..I took a 2 hour nap and it was very comforting..though I'm unsure of what that will do for my sleeping schedule now. Thursday Night I was up until midnight, which is indicative of a few things, one that I am finally getting comfortable enough here, and social enough with the people around me that I don't prefer sleeping as opposed to being awake, and two, I am out of melatonin. Funny story, not to be fully elaborated on here, but maybe to some of you a bit closer to me, particular atypical things led me to some googling where I wound up stumbling across some effects of melatonin that I had no idea about. they aren't negative ones or anything, just perplexing ones...well, hopefully they are actually attributed to the melatonin, otherwise they are still perplexing until further notice.

Another loooonnng day of el worko tomorrow, so I'm off for now. Good night everyone, and warm thoughts to those who may need it in these days.

5/18/07 Part One

Sorry I didn't write yesterday, especially after an entry that seemed to catch me on the downside. Thursday night is like our Friday/Saturday. I went out to dinner with two of the grad students here since they don't serve dinner Thursday nights. We went to that really tasty place I mentioned the other night. It was good to sit down with them and talk and get to know them better, I really enjoyed it. Afterwards we came back to the villa and talked some more. Later on my roommate came home and we stayed up until around midnight talking. I haven't had good experiences with roommates in the past, but this has definitely been one change my perspective. It is really nice to have someone ask you first thing in the morning, how you slept, or to laugh with someone right before you go to bed (though usually I just pass out early on while she is skyping). It is really nice to have someone go and pick up a variety of chewing gum for you, just because they thought of you. I knew that it wouldn't be hard adjusting to a roommate, especially since it is only for a short amount of time, but I didn't realize that I would go so far as to really enjoy having one. It is very different compared to my last 3 years at the dorms living by myself. I still don't mind the idea of living by myself, I don't think I will ever not prefer it, but having a roommate here, especiially one that is actually a lot like me in various ways, has been awesome. I think things were a little hypersensitive on my part for a little bit, just because I get really self conscious about whether or not I am bothering someone or getting on someone's nerves, and I didn't know how it was affecting someone like her who stays up keeping her contacts, while I pass out at 8:00 with every light on and every noise imaginable. i was always so exhausted that I didn't care what she would do, chances are I would sleep through it, but I know that if I were on the other end of the dynamic, it might make me feel a little uncomfortable if I felt as though i had to be overly quiet in my own room starting at a ridiculous hour like 8:00...but she doesn't seem to mind anything, she does her thing, and I do mine, and we've had a lot of good conversations in between. She told me I was welcome to visit her and stay if I was ever looking into the University of Chicago for grad school...though i don't think that is where I will want to go...It is a very very good school in the states for anthropology/archaeology, but it is very competitive, especially at the graduate level, from what I hear. Not that I am one to cower in the face of competition...but I know how easily I can be turned off from experiences if they are negative and make me unhappy, and I can't imagine finding happiness when I would have to constantly question my ability and rank it against others...i just want to do what I love, I don't even have to be the best at it. I just want to be able to travel, write, and teach, and really I would rather be the best at teaching over discovering, or being in high demand for the field. We'll see what happens though, i could go to grad school, and...hate it! Or i could finish here and decide, no way jose.


That's about what you all get for now. It's a quarter to 8 here. I woke up at 6:30 this morning and couldn't go back to sleep. I am going to the Cairo Museum at around 9...which, silly me, I thought was going to be something really toned down, and neat and clean...but I am already hearing stories about how hectic and unorganized it is...wish me luck, good night everyone, i will post more later.

5/16/07

I had an idea about what to write about earlier today, but I have forgotten it by now. I know a lot of you aren't really in direct contact with me, or don't IM me, but a few of you do. I'm pretty sure most anyone that has, has experienced some brunt of a bad mood of mine...sometimes it's deserved, and sometimes it really is not...but sometimes it really, truly is. I want to apologize now, and in advance for any instance in which I get short or grouchy with people. I know you all just miss talking to me and really just want to hear about everything going on here, but please try and be understanding and patient for the situation I am in, even at it's most basic level. While the stress I am under here is very different from what I am under at school, they are still stressful circumstances nonetheless, which I'm sure is obvious. Try to remember that I work 10 hour days in very hot weather, in very uncomfortable conditions, and that sometimes when I get home, I don't want to relive that entire 10 hour day, or that every weekend, that 60 hour week. Try to remember that my work is all a part of a huge learning process...I can never feel like I am the best person for the job, or I never feel satisfied, wholly with my abillities, I struggle with that fact that I have to keep trying to do it better and better (which is probably true of everyone, it's just something I want to point out). Try to remember that I only get 1 day off a week, and that so far, I have only had one of those and it was spent traveling all day. I know that sometimes I even start or initiate the conversation oriented around what I'm going through and that I can grow irritible at the flip of switch and just not want to talk anymore- again I ask that people be patient. For the most part you are all pretty understanding which helps, the last thing I need is to try and take in and deconstruct this experience and then, at the same time, worry or feel guilty at how my processing of all of this manifests itself in a bad mood. And if I am coming to you to talk, or vent, please realize that that's what I need from you, someone to listen. I don't need someone to try and make me look at things from a different perpspective, I'm trying to understand the perspective I have- not lose it or let it go. I don't need my feelings validated or invalidated, sometimes i just need to put them somewhere else besides my own mind and heart. If I snap at you because you don't understand, I'm sorry, that's not fair- but try and be thoughtful and considerate of the position I am in; irrespective of the the fact that it is my choice to be here.

If you couldn't tell today was a harder day. It was fine for a while, but at some point in the day I just really lost my energy and good spirit. I couldn't tell if I felt ill, or sad, or tired...I just floated in this ambiguous state of not feeling my best. It's like this entire experience just crashes and recedes like waves. It can take your breath away in good and bad ways. The fact that I am here,and that I am happy here, fills me with life and a hunger for more knowledge and worldly exploration...it makes me feel like I am ready for the next challenge, any challenge (though I'll pass on anything in the form of poor health whilst here). It makes me hopeful and optimistic about everything I can still accomplish, because here I am, only 22 and I am living in Egypt, If this is where I am at 22, who knows what I could see or do in the next 5 years.

But for every up, there is a down, and this experience is the epitome of mania. It is all so much at once that when you fall from that peak of optimism, that high from the quick pace of a new, eye opening experience, it seems like nothing, at all, makes sense. You feel guilty for what you have, you feel conflicted about what to do with what you learn, you are drained of all of your energy and suddenly putting on a smile seems to be the next challenge you face.

Everything is so complicated and so simple all at once and that only scratches the surface of the things running through my mind. I'm still trying to deal with all of the same questions and problems that everyone is dealing with back at home. Questions about my future, questions about the disappointments of the past, regret, mistakes, making changes, making decisions, making progress, and at the same time, trying to relax.

I don't want anyone to worry about me, I'm still doing great. I'm still a hopeful girl with an intense curiosity about the world, and I'm going to continue to embrace every highlight and every pitfall with the same attitude.

I'm sorry if this entry seems more like a downer...I guess I'll try and conclude with a funny snippet that occured today:

Richard: Oh Kelly, as soon as you fill up a box with the identified material, close it and make sure you write EOG and "done"
Kelly: Okay
Richard: Oh and the year...
Kelly: This year?
Richard: yes
Kelly: OR 4th DYNASTY??

..........prolonged silence to note Kelly being a smartass.....

that very well could have been a "you had to be there" moment.

There was also the point in the day where I created a new verb:

sheepgoat (v): to look at one of 9 reliable, anatomical differences between sheep and goat bones and successfully distinguish between the two

Example sentence/discussion that took place:

Kelly: Oh look an entire calcanium
Richard: yes, Kelly, very nice (I don't even think he was paying any attention to me at this point!)
Kelly: You know what that means? It means I can sheepgoat it
Richard: Yes it does....and you created a new verb too, excellent.

I hope everyone has a happy hump day...though for me wednesday is actually over the hump..so I get a different hump day alltogether.

5/15/07

I am on my lunch break right now, it is 6:49 am in Michigan. I should finish my 2nd weeks worth of identifications today, which means i am ahead of schedule...but, if any of the 4 remaining crates are loaded with fish, it could easily slow down my progress. Lets hope I stay on track.

I woke up in the middle of the night and I was super super warm. There isn't air conditioning at the Villa, at least not in the rooms, and my room is on the top floor. Needless to say, it gets a little stuffy in here. At the end of the month though the Villa closes and we will move into the large appartments they have here. The large apartments are thankfully air conditioned. The weather has not been that bad at all, compared to the first few 99 degree days while I was here. Now I find myself wondering if I need a jacket if the high is going to be 82...it's pretty bizarre. Lately it has been around 94, which really hasn't been that bad, though i've been assured it will get worse. Unfortunately, 94 is still dangerous in terms of dehydration and since it doesn't seem as bad to me, i haven't been downing the 5-7 bottles i was originally, so i need to get back to that. My skin gets super oily here and it's probably the worst it has ever been in terms of my acne..but i think it's more of just how my skin feels rather than how it looks. It doesn't really look like it's bad, as you can probably deduce from the pictures. but it just feels gritty and dirty and oily all the time. It really is an obnoxious feeling..no matter how much you clean and scrub it just feels like the dirt is embedded in your every pore. The nice thing though is that I don't really wear any make up to clog it all even more.

*******

Today Richard asked me if I had received graduate school information that my honors advisor said she would send me. It turns out that everything that she had sent me, I had already researched and pulled up on my own a long time ago. After explaining to Richard that I had already read them before she gave them to me, I added..."I don't think anyone here realizes how neurotic I am about this stuff..." to which he said,"Oh I'm starting to get an idea." It was pretty funny. Any time we start to talk about graduate school and professional archaeology he always says that he doesn't want to pressure me to do it and that everything is up to me entirely....again I don't think he realizes who he's talking to. ha!

Also today I was going to the bathroom outside of the lab and i saw a big ole gecko staring at me. I was going to go back and take a picture, but i didn't want to scare him.

I think from now on I am going to write my blog entries during my lunch break since I really should be doing more work in the evening. We'll see how it goes though.Today for lunch they served this onion soup that I reallly reallly like. It isn't like french onion soup though. The broth isn't brown, it's yellow, and it doesn't taste like it's loaded with salt, although it probably is. There was also a vegetable stew with peas, carrots, and potatoes in a tomato-base sauce. It is actually pretty bland tasting on it's own, but with hot sauce, it is good. There was fried chicked but I didn't eat it. there have been cases of bird flu here and they egyptian government said everyone had to kill all of their chickens as a result. That did not happen though, you can tell by the age of all the chickens you see in the villages. While I'm sure the chicken here is imported, and I know that there haven't been any cases of getting bird flew through the consumption of chicken, I still avoid large quantities of it.

Every day at ten they serve second breakfast at the site. They serve falafel or foul sandwhiches. I ate the falafel the first few days but then I was told that if I knew where it came form I wouldn't eat it anymore....(apparently it is made near the camel and horse stables)...if it's a matter of absolutely needing those calories, a possibility perhaps when it gets even hotter out, then I will eat it...until then, steering clear of those as well. They also serve coffee and tea around the clock on the site, which I enjoy, of course. Haha however, by coffee they mean Nescafe....it gets the job done I suppose, but it isn't as good as the real deal. The first day here my professor warned me about drinking from the cups they provide though...he said the water they use is filthy and it's a good way to get really sick because they don't clean them very well. So he got me a cup and disinfected it, along with one for himself, and now we hide them every day so that they don't take them and impose their own cleaning methods.

Alright well that's it for now. The work day so far is going very well, it is really helping to improve my confidence about the material. It is a weird mix of teaching myself stuff I never learned and learning even more things from Richard. Excitttttting!

Have a good day everyone, remember I will be back in the states a month from today!